Category: Celebrities & health

It was not the peacock’s finest hour. Or even their finest 34 seconds. Last week, NBC Today show anchors Matt Lauer and Al Roker had digital rectal exams (out of view, behind closed doors) on live TV. Lauer and the network announced that “The live event is part of No-Shave November, TODAY’s initiative to raise [...]

Women with breast cancer who are active on social media make a vital contribution to our public dialogue. So, when I read Angelina Jolie’s New York Times opinion piece, “My Medical Choice,” about her decision to have bilateral prophylactic mastectomy after breast cancer gene testing, I turned to some of the women I follow through [...]

Fact: the US spends a far greater percentage of the Gross Domestic Product on health care than any other country on earth. Suggestion: trends like the following, and news stories about these trends, may be a big reason why. Caution: You need to sit through a 15-second commercial before seeing the news video, which, itself [...]

The Star Tribune is going to take a lot of criticism for its story about a local TV news personality’s cancer foundation “targeting high school sporting events,” but I think this is important and legitimate cross-town journalism about journalism ethics. The story involves longtime Minneapolis TV personality Randy Shaver who has danced back and forth [...]

Paul Raeburn on the Knight Science Journalism Tracker leads the charge this time in critiquing a CNN Sanjay Gupta special. Excerpt: “Shucks, he’s gone and done it again. In a documentary entitled Deadly Dose that aired on CNN last night, Gupta breaks the news that Americans are overdosing on prescription drugs at an alarming rate, which [...]

Flip over the calender. October to November. Breast cancer awareness month morphs into Movember – the global publicity campaign subtitled “Changing the Face of Men’s Health.” The prominent publicity stunt is to have men grow facial hair to support – well, to support what exactly? The Movember website points to these “partners and programs we [...]

Call it a retraction. Call it a correction. Call it important to correct the record. Back in January, I led the charge in criticizing ABC’s Bill Weir for his report on Dr. David Agus’ book, “The End of Illness,” and Weir’s claim that a CT scan Agus recommended may have saved Weir’s life. You can [...]

The BMJ has a debate of sorts this week, “Does celebrity involvement in public health campaigns deliver long-term benefit?” Since you need a subscription to read the point/counterpoint, I refer you to news stories about it, such as the one in the Los Angeles Times. Or you can find other news coverage here, including an [...]

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Story Reviews

This story describes a small, ongoing study that touted lidocaine delivered to the back of the nasal cavity as an effective treatment for migraines. Although the story notes that the findings are preliminary, it does not inform us that the study wasn’t randomized or placebo-controlled; these are major drawbacks in interpreting the effectiveness of the procedure.

This story improves upon other recent Fox News efforts by including an independent expert perspective — the lack of which we commented on in a blog post about Fox News last week. But while our star score reflects that improvement, we still don’t think this story contributes very much to the public dialogue about health care. Our concerns are detailed in the review.

A study finds lower rates of gestational diabetes, but also more small babies, stillbirths, and newborn deaths in women who had bariatric surgery prior to their pregnancies compared with obese women who didn’t have surgery.